Garcetti, Eric (1971-…), served as the mayor of Los Angeles, California, from 2013 to 2022. Garcetti, a member of the Democratic Party, had earlier served as a Los Angeles city councilman. In 2023, Garcetti became United States ambassador to India in the administration of President Joe Biden.
Eric Michael Garcetti was born in Los Angeles on Feb. 4, 1971. His father, Gil Garcetti, was a lawyer who later became Los Angeles County’s district attorney. A district attorney represents the government in criminal or civil trials. In 1992, Eric Garcetti earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and urban planning from Columbia University in New York City. He received a master’s degree from the university’s School of International and Public Affairs the following year. Garcetti then attended the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where he studied as a Rhodes scholar. Rhodes scholarships enable top students from the United States and other nations to study at Oxford. Garcetti also studied at the London School of Economics.
From the late 1990’s to 2000, Garcetti taught public policy, diplomacy, and world affairs at the University of Southern California and later at Occidental College, both in Los Angeles. In 2001, he won election to his first term in the Los Angeles City Council. He represented a district that included such neighborhoods as Hollywood and Echo Park. He was reelected every four years and served on the council until mid-2013. His fellow council members elected him four times to serve as council president, a position he held from 2006 to 2012. From 2005 to 2013, Garcetti also served in the U.S. Naval Reserve, where he earned the rank of lieutenant.
In 2011, Garcetti began a campaign for the mayoral election of 2013. He stressed his commitment to “sustainable development”—that is, development using environmentally sound practices that protect natural resources. The son of a Jewish mother and an Italian-Mexican father, Garcetti said that his diverse background helped him identify with broad groups of Angelenos (inhabitants of Los Angeles). He won election in May 2013. As mayor, Garcetti supported measures to cut business taxes, expand public transportation, and fight homelessness.
Garcetti won election to a second term in March 2017. The term lasted five-and-a-half years instead of the usual four years because of a measure changing the city’s election calendar to line up with state elections. Karen Bass, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, succeeded Garcetti as mayor in December 2022.
